Joe McKinney’s Flesh Eaters is a prequel to his amazing one-two punch of zombie literature, Dead City and Apocalypse of the Dead.  This third novel begins just before Houston, Texas, is battered by hurricanes and follows Eleanor Norton and her family as they struggle to survive the barrage of destructive storms and the eventual rise of the necrosis filovirus that reanimates the dead.

Eleanor has to pull double duty, though.  Not only is she a devoted, and loving, wife and mother, but she is also a sergeant in the Houston Police Department’s Emergency Operations Command.  This means she has to divide her time between home (or what’s left of it), and helping those displaced by the hurricanes.  She also has to help maintain some semblance of law and order in the aftermath, which isn’t very easy.  Looters are one thing, but the walking dead who want to eat you are something else entirely.

The head of the EOC is Captain Mark Shaw.  He is trying to initiate the Disaster Mobilization Plan flawlessly, only nothing goes without flaw.  When hurricanes hit back to back, there’s only so much a city can take.  Shaw turns a local university campus into a shelter for thousands of citizens, and the problems soon multiply by the thousands:  no electricity, no proper plumbing, and food and drinking water are scarce.  Tensions run high among unsanitary conditions, just doing what he’s had to do has endangered Shaw’s job.  So you see how zombies can really make the whole thing a nightmare.

But Captain Shaw has a plan to survive.  All he has to do is move the survivors to the military evacuation center; he may not be able to move them safely, but he’s going to move them.  And while doing all this, his two sons (also cops) will be robbing a bank that is submerged under the flood waters.  His career will be over, but he and his family will be okay to the tune of several million dollars.

The zombies, of course, are a wrench in the works of the best laid plans of men.  These aren’t just any zombies, either, these are Joe McKinney zombies, and those are the best kind.  These zombies are determined once they set their dead sights on you, they swarm, they pop up when you least expect, or more times than not, they get what they desire.  What they desire is a warm meal–you.

I didn’t envy Joe McKinney with having to write another novel after Apocalypse of the Dead, which is a true horror masterpiece, but he delivers with Flesh Eaters.  I didn’t find it to be as compulsively readable as Apocalypse, and the villain isn’t as terrifying as Apocalypse‘s mad, demented preacher.  But this is still a stellar read.  It’s easy to say that the humans are the real monsters, but Flesh Eaters isn’t so cut and dry. We never know what we will do until we are forced to do it. Captain Shaw has flipped sides to criminal acts, but he just wants to take care of his family, ensure their well being.  Eleanor has a sworn oath to enforce the law, but she also has to protect her loved ones.

I am in awe of McKinney.  For those people who would judge this book, and his others, by their covers and simply dismiss them as gross-out horror trash, they are missing some powerful writing.  McKinney’s dead trilogy, especially these last two novels, are very topical, very political, and profound.   Joe McKinney paints a vivid portrait of a crumbling civilization, and it’s all the more horrifying because it’s recognizable.  Joe McKinney is a great writer, and one of my favorites.  I strongly encourage readers to seek out his work.

4.5 out of 5

John Jason
 the_novacula